Thursday, 14 April 2016

There are some sacrifices we never recover from…Faye Middleton is at a crossroads in her life. After breaking the last seal and discovering their Rebellion camp was destroyed, she returns to Ethryeal City, determined to avenge the deaths of her mother and friends.Faye and her team do what they can to keep their Coven intact now that the Priesthood has fallen, but with Darkyn attacks threatening the exposure of their kind, the Primeval Coven is close to being cut off by the United Nations.Until Meredith, a mysterious Darkyn, appears, claiming she has information that will help Faye bring down the two responsible for the deaths of her mother and friends, and for the fall of her Coven. The only catch is that it requires returning to the very place she lost her mother—the Underground.Not wanting to risk any more lives, Faye and Weldon agree to go with Meredith on their own. They know Faye will have to face the one machine every Coven is after—the Exanimator. No one who has ever stepped in has ever come out the same, if at all…But Faye will do anything she can to protect those she loves, even if it costs her life.

Jaxen’s on the edge of the bed with nothing but a pair of gunmetal gray sweatpants on, an empty glass in his hand, and a half-empty bottle resting by his feet.

He looks so tortured. Looks at me as if he wishes he were seeing someone else. Someone less distant and broken. It feels like ice is eating away at my bones. Like fire is scorching every one of my nerves.

“How did your meeting go?” His strangled words slur a little.

“Okay, I guess.”

I make my way over to him, but everything feels so unfamiliar and shaky—like walking into another plane of time. Like stepping on a spider web and finding myself caught as the truth makes its way across, ready to spin me and drain my blood.

He makes a haphazard gesture for me to sit next to him. “That good?”

“It was fine,” I lie, taking the empty glass from his hand. I grab the bottle by his feet, pour myself a shot, and toss it back, reveling in the fiery burn running down my throat that washes away the awful taste the Belladonna I took a few minutes ago left behind.

“So, this is what we’ve become then?”

I hate the desolation in his voice. There’s a desert between us without a hope for either one of us crossing it.

“What’s that?” I ask a little tersely, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and downing another shot. I’m trying to pretend I don’t know where this is headed. That I don’t see and hear the heartache ripping our guts out right now, because I need to pretend. I need to fake that everything is okay. Need him to believe I’m fine because the moment I don’t… the moment he looks at me, knowing I’ll die and seeing that death reflected in his gaze, then it will all be over.

Everything.

He tries to clear his throat, but the sound is painful. Like he’s swallowing tears. “I don’t know. Strangers? Two lovers who lie to one another? Who hide things from each other? Who can’t turn to each other whenever something bad is happening?”

I don’t recognize this Jaxen. This raw ache in his voice that scratches at the door of my heart, waiting for me to open it. I find myself missing the old him. The one who had his emotions under control. Who could take this pain and survive in it.

I set the glass down. Brace my hands on my knees as the alcohol sends my brain spinning. “I love you, Jaxen. More than I could ever explain to you.”

He laughs like he might be losing his mind. “Yet, here we are, our entire future splitting off from each other.” The cynicism in his voice is as thick as tar, and it’s choking my ability to think. To make sense of what I should and shouldn’t say.

I need a breath of fresh air. Need a new body to hide in. One where I’m safe from his prodding. Safe from myself.

“I can’t even feel your mind anymore. It’s like you’re… you’re purposefully pulling away from me. Like you’re a ghost haunting me.” His eyes are flashing with anger now. He’s two steps from falling off the edge. From losing it all. I want to tell him everything. Want to tell him about my impending death, and that it’s easier this way because he’s going to lose me, only, not because of his curse.

Because of my curse.

“There are things, Jaxen. Things we knew would happen one way or another,” I say, and I find myself surprised by how calm I sound when my heart rattles at the cage of my bones to be free from my irrevocable torture.

“Things,” he retorts, spitting out the word with heavy distaste. “No, Faye. Things are that dresser or this pillow. Things are not the secrets Mack, Weldon, and Seamus has asked you to keep from me. Things are not the way you’ve been handling everything lately. That’s called shutting down. That’s called knowing about something that’s going to happen… that’s going to affect both of us, and you deciding not to tell me.”

I can’t believe the anger radiating off him like heat waves. The fury raging in his eyes as his hands clench and unclench against his legs, like he’s trying to contain the outburst that’s been coming my way since we returned here to Ethryeal City.

Author Bio:

Candace Knoebel is the award-winning author of Born in Flames-book one in a young adult fantasy trilogy. She discovered in 2009 through lunch breaks and late nights after putting her kids to bed, a world where she could escape the ever-pressing days of an eight to five Purgatory. And an outlet for all the voices residing in her head.Published by 48fourteen in 2012, Born in Flames went on to win Turning the Pages Book of the Year award in February of 2013. In January of 2014, the last book in the trilogy, From the Embers, was released, thusly completing the trilogy. She now works on the Night Watchmen Series, while guzzling Red Bulls and pretending to be a ninja on Heelys.

Friday, 1 April 2016

Trent Mask puts the REV in revolution.A line has been drawn.Indie vs ProHere at GearShark, we’re straddling that line to bring you exclusive coverage of what some have dubbed the war of racing.
Every war starts with a spark and ends in revolution.
Drew Forrester was the spark,
but his second-in-command is the REVolution.What does it take to stand brave in the face of opposition?resolve of steel…Stubborn will…And a heart that refuses to give up.It isn’t just the drivers in this war.
The revolution is about more than just racing.
It’s about shattering labels and taking risks.So we asked Trent Mask: Truth or Dare?His answer?Both.Check out the full feature article inside…

Drew
I was no quitter.
I refused to quit Trent.So angry. I was so goddamned angry.
He was pushing me away when all I wanted to do was pull him close. It was almost laughable he tried to break up with me. I felt the laughter bubbling up inside me, ready to explode. It was like I was so incredibly infuriated I couldn’t yell, I couldn’t cry, I couldn’t even speak.
But I wanted to laugh. The kind of laugh only villains in movies did. The kind that bespoke of internal madness.
That’s what tonight was. Madness.
He was jumped. Beaten. He told me he loved me. Then he laid out intent to withhold that love.
Trent was trying to protect me, in his mind he wasn’t keeping the love he felt from me, rather showing it in the best way he knew how. I respected that. I did.
But I wouldn’t have it.
We’d gotten one week together, I wanted more.
I suppose thinking we could keep our relationship a secret was naive. Merely wishful thinking. When you loved someone the way we loved each other it was impossible to hide. It showed in every way.
Not just in the way we looked at each other. Or the way we spent every spare moment together. It showed in ways I never wanted to see until now. Ways I thought no one else would notice.
I’d been fooling myself.
It was the way he put ketchup on his plate so I could eat his fries. The way I automatically pulled the tomatoes off my burgers and slid them on to his plate. It was the fact I went to him first whenever something happened I wanted to share. And the way we made each other’s coffee, exactly as we drank it.
Love is in the details. It is in the every day. It is the way you treat someone when they aren’t even looking and the way they fill your head when you’re apart.
Of course people were going to see it. Joey saw it almost from day one. Braeden and Ivy already knew. The reporter from GearShark knew from just one conversation…
Hiding our relationship was almost not an option.
Dissolving it wasn’t either.
My hand throbbed and my knuckles were slick with blood when I slammed out of the room. I was so intensely frustrated I couldn’t look at him another minute.
We weren’t over. No way in hell.
But I needed a minute.
My mind was so clouded with anger I didn’t see him. I didn’t notice him at all until he cleared his throat. My body jerked to a stop and my head whipped around to see Romeo leaning against the wall, like he was resolved to be there a while.
I’m sure he heard everything.
Me and Trent had been yelling. And the sound of my hand going through the wall hadn’t exactly been silent.
“Guess I don’t need to ask how he is.” Romeo said, straightening off the wall.
“You agree with him?” I challenged, my hand flexed. It was already fucked up from going through a wall, but I’d use it again if I had to.
“I understand why he thinks he’s doing what’s right.”
At first his words didn’t sink in. They just pissed me off even more. All I heard was Romeo understood Trent. I growled low and stepped forward in an aggressive movement.
Romeo’s every narrowed, watching me close but other than that his body language didn’t change.
That’s when I realized he was no threat to me. That’s when I realized he was on my side.
“We’re in a relationship.” I said, point blank. I kind of wanted to shock him. I wanted someone other than me to feel the sting of words tonight.
I also wanted a fight.
Just not with Trent.
Never with Trent.
“I know.”
The amusement in his tone took a little heat out of my oven.
“You can’t keep secrets like that from family. Family who really loves you.”
I tilted my head to the side and regarded him. Was he saying he knew before he walked into this house a little bit ago?
Was he saying he didn’t care?
“You should probably get that hand cleaned up. You’re bleeding on the floor.”
I glanced down at the blood dripping off my knuckles.
“I’ll talk to Trent.” He went on. Romeo stepped off the wall and toward the bedroom door. I moved fast, silently snatching his arm and turning him around. He didn’t pull away or act like my roughness was a threat, but his muscles tensed beneath my arm and I felt tension coil in his limbs.
“He cares what you think.” I said low. “Your opinion matters. So if you aren’t sure how you feel about our relationship or the fact there are two gay guys in your family walk away, walk away right now.”
Romeo stared at me level, his blue eyes bouncing between mine.
“He’s already fucked up enough right now. If you can’t offer him the brother he needs tonight I won’t let you in that room.”
Romeo smiled. His lips curved up into a knowing, almost pleased expression. “He pissed you off so bad you put your hand through a wall and he’s pushing you away, but yet here you are, standing guard at the door protecting him.”
“That wasn’t an answer,” I growled.
Romeo laughed beneath his breath. And then he answered.
Not with words.
In seconds his arm was out of my grasp and he was hugging me. I hesitated, shocked that he would just reach out and hug me like this.
“Family takes care of family.” his voice was low. “I’m not sure if there is anything that could make me turn my back on family, but if there is, it isn’t this.”
When he pulled back I looked him in the eye.
He meant it.
“Congratulations on finding a love worth fighting for.”

Author Bio:

Cambria Hebert is an award winning, bestselling novelist of more than twenty books. She went to college for a bachelor’s degree, couldn’t pick a major, and ended up with a degree in cosmetology. So rest assured her characters will always have good hair. Besides writing, Cambria loves a caramel latte, staying up late, sleeping in, and watching movies. She considers math human torture and has an irrational fear of chickens (yes, chickens). You can often find her running on the treadmill (she’d rather be eating a donut), painting her toenails (because she bites her fingernails), or walking her chorkie (the real boss of the house). Cambria has written within the young adult and new adult genres, penning many paranormal and contemporary titles. Her favorite genre to read and write is romantic suspense. A few of her most recognized titles are: The Hashtag Series, Text, Torch, and Tattoo.Cambria Hebert owns and operates Cambria Hebert Books, LLC.

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2.5-3/5
I was really hoping to like this book. From the blurb it seemed like it would be really interesting. Sadly this turned out to be just an OK read, so I was disappointed :/
The big thing I didn't like about the book was the main c...

Oh Cassie Mae. You never cease to amaze me with your ability to turn me into a sap. This book was just too fickin CUTE! I had a grin plastered to my face like 90% of the time. I couldn't help myself. I loved every second of this book.
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